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Tuesday, 27 December 2011

Cheryl Cole has launched her own Limited Edition Lipstick in this season's must-have shade: 'Red Passion'. Cheryl teamed up with L'oreal to create the limited edition lipstick as part of the Color Riche Paris range and a pound from every sale will go to The Cheryl Cole Foundation in aid of The Prince's Trust. Cheryl's lipstick comes in the iconic L'Oreal gold packaging and feature's Cheryl's signature on the side.

Cheryl said she thought carefully about the shade of the lipstick and wanted to pick one that would suit everyone. She said: 'I love wearing lipstick as it is makes me feel glamorous whatever the occasion. I chose this iconic luxurious, red shade as it is the perfect dramatic accessory. When selecting the shade I chose one I felt would flatter most hair and skin types, and is the red that everyone wants in their make-up bag.'

Cheryl Cole's Red Passion Lipstick will be priced at £8.16 and hits the shelves on 28th December 2011 at Boots.com and Superdrug. Will you be purchasing Cheryl's first Lipstick?

Saturday, 24 December 2011

If you visit L'Occitane's website today and decorate their Virtual Christmas Tree you are rewarded with a free mini Fleur Cherie Body Lotion worth £8.50! You shall be emailed a voucher to claim your freebie within a week to collect the lotion from L'Occitane stand alone stores. The voucher is valid until Tues 31st Jan 2012 and is limited to one per person whilst stocks last.

Yesterday I sent out my first newsletter - If you would like to sign up then you can here - I am aiming to send out monthly newsletters in future. I thought I would give you a summary of the ten most popular posts this month that you may have missed and let you know about my festive giveaways! The quickest way to reach me is to Tweet Me or to keep updated on giveaways and blog posts you can subscribe by email to get a daily summary straight to your inbox. I also have a Facebook Page if you have any requests for blog posts. I would like to thank you for all your support in 2011, here's to an even better 2012 ;)

Friday, 23 December 2011

To celebrate their tour kicking off I have some of Frankie's favourite skincare to give away worth £16 to a Perfectly Polished Reader! Frankie from The Saturdays is a huge fan of Barefoot products, especially Barefoot SOS Face & Body Wash to calm down her sensitive skin and keep her skin in tip top condition! Barefoot's SOS range is perfect for skin in need of some TLC, whether it be due to make-up, skincare or environmental factors irritating your skin. Barefoot's natural range will soothe and calm even the most sensitive complexions you can check out their Facebook Page for more information.

The Rules:

This giveaway is open to all Perfectly Polished Followers and shall close on 1st January 2012 at 11pm (UK Time).

1. You must be a follower through Google Friend Connect2. Simply write 'SOS' in the comments below to enter!3. For extra entries follow me on Twitter @perfectpolished and Tweet:I want to win Frankie from the Saturdays Skin Secret! http://bit.ly/sSijjx @perfectpolished RT

4. For extra entries publicise on your blog or website and post the link in the comments below

Thursday, 22 December 2011

I am sharing an exclusive review and sneak preview of the new Liz Earle Botanical Shine Hair Treatment which is due to be launched in the New Year! Liz Earle Botanical Shine Treatment is the newest addition to the Liz Earle Naturally Active Hair Care range. After the huge success of their Botanical Shine Shampoo and Conditioners (read my review here) many Liz Earle customers have been requesting a super-intensive hair treatment to target frizzy, coarse or very dry hair.

The intensive, colour-safe conditioning treatment promises to leave frizzy, coarse or very dry hair smooth, frizz-free, deeply hydrated, tamed and with a totally manageable texture. The treatment comes in the same packaging as the shampoo and conditioner: a squeezey tube which is slightly smaller size 150ml and has the same fresh citrus scent. The treatment contains no nasty chemicals but is packed with naturally active ingredients such as Red algae, cotton extract, sumac wax carefully blended to deliver much needed intensive hydration to this hair type. Apple and orange extracts restore natural shine and eight essential oils leave your hair delicately scented, clean and fresh.

I applied this after shampooing and towel dried hair roughly and left on my hair for 10 minutes as direction (but you can leave on for 30 minutes for a more intensive treat) then rinsed thoroughly with warm water. I definitely noticed my hair was less frizzy, felt silky smooth and more manageable even the next day after washing I did not need to re-straighten. I am interested to see if my colour will last longer using the products so I shall report back! Overall I am very pleased with the results and it is very reasonably priced. If you suffer with coarse, frizzy or dry hair I would definitely recommend to try this treatment especially given the ingredients are natural and don't contain any nasty chemicals which can strip natural oils from your hair making the problem worse!

Liz Earle Botanical Shine Treatment will be available on 3rd January 2012 priced at £14 for 150ml from John Lewis. Are you a Liz Earle Fan?

I recently went along to the Wonderbra Bloggers Event to
celebrate the new Ultimate Plunge Bra. Wonderbra has developed the Ultimate
Plunge bra to support this season’s fashion trend of incredibly low necklines. To
celebrate the launch, Wonderbra commissioned research into UK women’s fashion
habits. It found that women only wear on average 34% of their wardrobe as they lack the confidence
to try something new or experiment with a new look. Wonderbra is now embarking
on a one brand campaign to get UK women to be a bit more daring and take the
plunge with fashion. Wonderbra has created the perfect bra for this season’s
hottest celebrity trend – the plunging neckline.

The party was held in a lovely bar in Shoreditch, and surprisingly
we were the first to arrive (which makes a change!) but unfortunately I was
only able to stay an hour as I was rushing to see Alan Carr Chattyman! We were
greeted by the lovely ladies at Wonderbra PR team who made me feel very welcome
and were offered amazing gin cocktails which were so gorgeous I had to ask for
the recipe: Gin; Fresh Watermelon, Lemon
Juice, St Germaine, Sugar Syrup & Lemon Peel. I had my own personalised
Ultimate Plunge design drawn by an illustrator and was measured and fitted for
a bra - I was gobsmacked to know I was a cup size bigger than I thought!

The bra has a special centre gore made of clear plastic, to
create a really deep plunging cleavage. To make sure you feel confident wearing
it, the underwire has been replaced with special hand like structures, which
really hold you in place and help give you some wonderbra oomph. The ‘fingers’
of the hand surround the breast to give firm support to the plunge and the ‘palm’
pushes the breasts together giving the trusted Wonderbra cleavage. Made from smooth microfiber material and
fishnet cups, the bra is invisible under clothing and very comfy to wear with
multiways straps allow it to be worn under racer back and halter neck styles.

Wonderbra Ultimate Plunge bra costs £32 and is available in
Black or Nude from http://www.wonderbra.co.uk
I shall be taking the Ultimate Plunge Style Challenge over Christmas and will
post a picture of the outfit I create for you all to have a nosey. Will you be
taking the plunge challenge?

Wednesday, 21 December 2011

Ho Ho Ho! Firstly sorry for the lack of blog posts this week - It was my Birthday on Sunday so I have been away for a couple of days! I have a few posts coming up - Last Minute Xmas Present Ideas; Aussie Surprises; Festive Glitter Nails & some sneak product peeks!

Today I got a nice surprise waiting for me when I arrived home - December's GLOSSYBOX! I wasn't expecting the box so it was very thoughtful of the Glossybox team to send it to me. If you are not aware, Glossybox is a subscription package that sends you a box of 5 luxury beauty samples beautifully wrapped to your door to try out every month for the price of £10 per month + postage & packaging then if you like you are able to buy the full size product discounted. You can read more about Glossybox here and I reviewed last month's box here.

December's box is a little different as it is a Special Edition Christmas box to get you in the festive spirit and it is Part 2 of their Christmas Gift Guide! As usual everything is beautifully wrapped, but as you can see this month's box is not pink, it's glossy red which I absolutely love and inside everything is wrapped in white tissue paper - very festive! So more importantly let's get on to what's inside...

Deborah Lippmann Razzle Dazzle Mini Polish with Stripper to Go SachetAlthough this is classed as a mini sized polish (worth roughly £10) I would say it is a pretty generous size and the full size version is a whopping £16 which is expensive for a nail polish! I have heard great things about Deborah Lippmann and been wanting to try her polishes for some time so I am very pleased to receive this. 'Razzle Dazzle' is a darkened raspberry red with glitter and it is the perfect shade for the festive and winter season. This polish will definitely be featuring in a NOTD over Christmas I absolutely love it! Deborah has just recently launched her nail polish range at House of Fraser in the UK with some gorgeous shades particularly the glitter polishes! The polish came with a Deborah Lippmann lavender Stripped to Go Sachet (worth £2.33) which is a handy polish remover finger nail mitt which will be great to pop in my handbag for any emergency polish removal situations.

Rituals Foaming Shower Gel in Fujiyama (Mandarin & Mint)I have tried Rituals Foaming Shower Gels before and love them so another product I am happy to receive and this is a full sized product (worth £6.50). You only need to squirt out a small amount of gel and it instantly foams up into loads of luxe lather and leaves skin silky soft & smooth. Mandarin & Mint probably wouldn't of been a scent that would of appealed to me normally but I am pleasantly surprised, it's gorgeous and unusual scent but fresh and the smell reminds me very much of Christmas.

MEMEME Seventh HeavenThis is a 10mlsize sample pot (worth £5) of the face base - a primer and moisturiser all in one quite similar to the Bobbi Brown version. It has a fresh citrus scent and is used underneath makeup and foundation to prep and smooth skin and give a nice healthy glow.

Cargo Classic Lipgloss in Las VegasI have tried a few Cargo products and they have been great quality and this is a lip gloss with a new formulation - long lasting, high-shine, moisturising without being sticky. The shade I received was 'Las Vegas' which is a pretty pink champagne with shimmer. I believe this is a mini -sized lipgloss so good to pop into handbags or travel with, the full size is priced at £10.

Blink + Go Hi-Definition Black Mascara I have tried a Blink + Go heated eyelash curler about 10 years ago and it worked a treat so I am excited to try this mascara as I have high hopes it will be as good. It is another full sized product (worth £14.99) and promises longer, thicker, sexier lashes, flake-free and another added bonus is it's waterproof.

Overall I am very impressed with this month's box, in fact I think it is one of the best boxes to date! The star products being the Deborah Lippmann Nail polish and the Rituals Foaming Shower Gel for me and I am very excited to try the Blink + Go mascara. This month's box had a nice variation of products, contained three full sized products, and an added bonus sample.

I have roughly totted up the value of the products this month and it comes to over £65! So for £10 plus P&P is it definitely worth the money if you enjoy sampling high-end products and it's a nice little treat each month. I would like to thank the Glossybox team for generously sending me the box as a surprise! Did you receive this month's Glossybox? What were your thoughts?

Friday, 16 December 2011

I was recently contacted by Barry M to try a few picks of their makeup range as believe it or not I had not dabbled with Barry M makeup before! I was sent a Lip gloss, Eye Dazzle Dust and Lip Crayon to play with and I thought the shades were very festive so would be perfect for Christmas!

First of all is the Dazzle Dust in 'Dark Green' (£4.59) which is a lovely little pot and a very good dupe to the MAC pigments. This is a lovely shimmery green - very festive and versatile that you could mix with darker colours to create a nice smokey dark green eye. The only thing I will say are these Dazzle Dusts are extremely messy and you need to be careful when using them. I would suggest placing the pot on a piece of paper as as soon as you unscrew the lid the dust goes everywhere!

Swatches

Lip Gloss Wand (£4.49) in the shade 'Strawberry Milkshake' this smells like strawberry ice cream and is a lovely baby pink milky colour. The star item for me being the Lip Crayon in 'Cherry Red' (£4.99) which is a lovely bright pinky red with glitter and is a cross between a lipstick and a lip gloss but in a handy chunky crayon. It is highly pigmented and a lovely non-sticky texture and very similar to a YSL Golden Gloss in Vojaa that I have also been loving recently. It was very difficult to capture on camera how nice it is! The Cherry Red Lip Crayon and the Dark Green Shimmery Dazzle Dust are perfect partners for all the festive parties this season!

Cherry Red on the Lips

Barry M makeup is available Boots.com and Superdrug and would make a great gift for those on a budget - an idea being you could create your own makeup set, select a few Barry M items, wrap in tissue paper and place in a nice gift box. What are your favourite Barry M pieces?

Inspired by cupcakes and the Bake Boutique Cake-inspired candles I am posting a series of recipes to bake at home - this week's recipe is Vanilla Cupcakes - an American classic. You can of course use the basic cake recipe and decorate the cakes with whatever you fancy, it doesn't just have to be sprinkles! Let me know if you give this recipe a go and tweet me@perfectpolished a picture! If you fancy baking a Christmas Cake with a twist then see last week's recipe for Red Velvet Cake.

Cupcake
ingredients

110g (4oz) butter at room temperature

110g (4oz) golden caster sugar

2 free-range eggs

1 tsp good quality vanilla extract

110g (4oz) self-raising flour

1-2 tbsp whole milk

Buttercream topping:

140g (5oz) butter at room temperature

280g (10oz) sifted icing sugar

2 tbsp whole milk

1tsp good quality vanilla extract

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 C, 160 C fan, 350 F,
gas 4.

Cream the butter and sugar together, using a
handheld electric whisk or free standing electric mixer. Mix until pale
and fluffy.

Add the eggs one by one, beating well after
each addition, then add the vanilla extract.

Gradually add the flour then the milk beating
well.

Line a muffin tray with 12 cupcake cases and
fill with about two-thirds of the mixture. Place in the preheated oven and
bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until lightly golden on top. To test if they
are cooked, insert a knife and it should come out clean. Remove from the
tin and leave to cool on a wire rack.

Whilst your cupcakes are cooling make the
buttercream icing. If desired, add a few drops of food colouring.

Once cooled ice the cupcakes using your
buttercream frosting and decorate using hundreds & thousands
or other sprinkles from your local supermarket or baking shop.

Wednesday, 14 December 2011

If you didn't know already I'm an Aussie Angel and many of you may of seen the Bigger Aussie Bottles that have recently launched? I am currently doing my own Aussie Challenge that I shall be sharing with you soon, but since it's Christmas it's time to spread some Festive Aussie Cheer! I shall be sending three of my Twitter friends a Special Christmas Surprise Gift and the chance to try my favourite Aussie Products for yourself!

How to enter?This is open to all my Twitter Followers World-Wide and shall close on 15th December at 11pm (UK time)1. You need to follow me on Twitter and Tweet me 'I'd like some Festive Aussie Cheer please http://nblo.gs/rwBFr@perfectpolished'2. I shall pick three winners using random.org and I will need your name and address details by 16th December 2011

Monday, 12 December 2011

If you believe what you read in the papers about the Royal
Family then apparently Camilla has been dishing out beauty tips to Kate
Middleton – who would have thought it!? Apparently the Royals are a fan of Deborah Mitchell’s Bee
Sting Facial at £165 a pop! The treatment has been dubbed as a ‘non-surgical face lift’ that has natural but similar results to Botox. The Bee Sting Facials,
tricks the skin into thinking it has been stung, which increases blood flow to
the skin’s surface, boosting collagen production and cell renewal. Other
celebrity fans include Victoria Beckham, Kylie and Dannii Minogue.

Holland & Barrett is bringing this high-tech, bee
venom skincare to the masses and making it affordable to everyone for the very
first time with the new range of Bee Venom skincare: Manuka Doctor. This innovative beauty launch marks the future of Holland & Barrett’s
beauty expansion in to high-performing natural skincare.

Manuka Honey, Shea Butter, Royal Jelly, Rosehip, Blackcurrant, Propolis,
Coco and a whole host of other natural ingredients comprise this luxurious
range. The intensive moisturising mask promises to help reduce the appearance of fine lines & wrinkles, while the antioxidant qualities support anti-ageing by promoting cell regeneration, and can reduce the appearance of scars.

The mask is quite a thick creamy texture It was quite cold
to apply and straight away it stung quite a bit (no pun intended!) but this
wore off after about 5 minutes and the cream sets so it becomes difficult to
move your face. I left the mask on for 30 minutes and I noticed that my skin
seemed to ‘drink up’ the mask and the thick white cream had turned transparent
and hardly noticeable. There is apparently over 10,000 bee stings per pot so
not surprisingly it felt tingly. After I rinsed the mask off immediately my
skin felt plumped, refreshed and glowing. Although anti-aging is not high on my
list of skin worries, it would be interesting to try this product out on a more
mature skin to see if it has the benefits of Botox.

Manuka Doctor Bee Venom Face Mask is priced at £49.99 and is
available from Holland & Barrett. Have you tried any of the Bee Venom range?

Had quite a few compliments on my WAH inspired nail art this week. All the polishes are by TOPSHOP makeup line and this is easy to re-create at home. Firstly use a base
coat, then apply two coats of the dark burgundy shade (which I can’t find on
their website now so not sure if it was limited edition?) leaving out my ring
finger on both hands – you can choose to apply the nail art to any nail that
takes your fancy.

Then apply one coat of Topshop’s ‘Metallic Nails in
Hyperreal’ on each ring finger or whichever is your feature nail of choice.
Once that has dried add a few blobs of Topshop’s ‘causing a stir’ on top of the
gold polish, this doesn’t need to be neat! Then using a black nail art pen
roughly mark around the blobs and make random dots and dashes to create a leopard
print effect. Finish with a coat of Top Coat over each nail.

Sunday, 11 December 2011

On Thursday evening I was invited to the Launch Party of the new Illamasqua Store in Leeds Victoria Quarter which is the perfect location as the VQ is such a beautiful setting. The decor inside the store is amazing with glittery walls and floors, gothic mirrors, neon lights and distinctive art work - unfortunately I forgot to take my camera :(

With glass of champagne in hand I was shown around the store: downstairs you will find all their makeup nicely presented so you can have a play around and upstairs you will find a make over area with booths and even a balcony. It's a shame that none of the other stores in the Victoria Quarter seem to have an upstairs area where you can look out of the balcony!

Julian Kynaston (Illamasqua's founder) was there along with MUA Alex Box who looking very coordinated and dressed up as usual - I can't image her ever not looking glam! Had a nice catch up with the other beauty bloggers and a couple of new faces that attended and also the Illamasqua team....in fact I was the last one to leave! One of the MUA gave me a natural looking lash makeover and I was that busy chatting that I forgot to check out the Skin Base range as I missed the Skin Base launch event and have heard many raves!

Would like to thank the lovely girls at Illamasqua for organising such a fab event and such generous goody bags. I received a duo bronzer, body oil, sparkly lashes, a sample of freak perfume, and a lipgloss - which are all perfect shades for the festive season. The store officially opened yesterday (10th Decemeber 2011). Have you visited the Illamasqua Leeds store yet? If you are in Leeds you must visit and you can't miss it as it's opposite the Mulberry Store ;)

Saturday, 10 December 2011

You may remember me raving about my love for Lanolips? They have just recently launched a new body range of products, the first product being Lanolips Lovely Lanolin Golden Ointment. This is a super rich moisturising ointment for extremely dry skin that combines ultra pure medical grade lanolin with Manuka Honey and Vitamin E.

Lanolin is a luxuriously creamy purified ointment that has been cleansed of all colour, fragrance and impurities. Lanolin can hold over 200% of its own weight in water making it a super moisturiser that nourishes the skin.

This gorgeous golden ointment reminds me very much of Elizabeth Arden’s 8 Hour Cream, but without the sticky, tacky feeling on the skin and strange smell.

The combination of the change in weather, central heating and my car heater on full blast has left my skin dry, tight and irritated. This ointment has been a god send for clearing up the dry patches and soothing my skin and is perfect for this time of year, it also smells lovely too! The tube is handbag-size friendly and you only need to use a little as it goes a long way. I love that it is multi-purpose – you can use it anywhere – dry lips, face, body etc and with it being hypoallergenic it is even safe to use on newborn babies!

Lovely Lanolin Golden Ointment is priced at £17.99 and available now from www.victoriahealth.com and from Boots from February 2012.

I haven't posted a haul in ages so thought I would share a few bits I quickly bought last night at the Topshop Event before I went to the launch party of the new Leeds Illamasqua store. As part of a festive shopping night Topshop had a DJ, giving out free cider, cake pops, mini manicures and make-overs as well as a photo booth. I was also given a Topshop Lipstick on arrival in the shade 'Moccasin' which isn't really my choice of colour. Plus when I bought my goods I was given a free gift of a knitted sparkly black bow headband, and a bag of Topshop makeup - containing a nice gold eye shadow, eye liner, makeup wipes and nail polish removal pads...which was a nice little bonus.

So here's what I got:

Fake Fur wrap

Champagne coloured sparkly dress

Super Soft dove blue jeggings

Gold Harness Chain

Cream top with Puter sequins

Black vest with black leather disk detailing

Let me know if you would like to see more hauls?

I recently bought some MAC and Chanel makeup :)

Hope your all having a good weekend - Who do you think is going to win X Factor?!